Routines Reduce Stress

Israeli researchers at the Tel Aviv University (TAU) say that daily routines and rituals play a very important role on protecting the human mind from the damaging effects of excessive stress. These days, most individuals are subjected to more stress than our species evolved to cope with.

Instinctively, people come with their own methods of coping. Some involve running away from responsibilities, while others are more subjective. Many tend to engage in daily rituals, processions of events that are performed in the exact same order every time.

This can be seen in athletes or basketball and baseball players. They always have a small ritual that they do before a throw, whose sole role is to calm them down, and increase their resiliency to stress.

Researchers explain that obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a harmful version of this defense mechanism. A patient suffering from OCD will tend to wash their hands dozens of times per day, even if they are squeaky-clean.

Interestingly, the new investigation has discovered ritual behaviors such as the ones described above in the natural world as well. Apparently, other species have mastered the art of reducing stress as well. At the same time, repetitive behaviors also contribute to inducing calm and inner peace.

Details of the new scientific study appear in the latest issue of the esteemed Journal of Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, PsychCentral reports. The research team behind the study was led by TAU zoologist Dr. David Eilam.

“The routine they perform in the moments before shooting the ball is a method to focus their full concentration and control their actions,” the team leader says of baseball players who perform some sort of ritual before they finally throw the ball.

Eilam explains that there is a very subtle difference between normal rituals and compulsive behavior. Maintaining the baseball references, he explains that players tend to exit their stressful state once a certain cue is reached, in this case the throwing of the ball.

But a common action such as washing one's hands is not a cue in itself, which may explain why people with OCD do not stop after cleaning themselves, and persist in the same behavior. Their brains receive no cue that everything is in order, so the need to wash persists.